AMD could be preparing to give some of its employees bad news sometime next week. The PC processor and graphics maker, which has already predicted that its third quarter earnings will be well below previous expectations, is now rumored to be thinking about cuts in its workforce that could affect 30 percent of its team members.

News.com reported on the possible layoffs, via unnamed sources, but added that the workforce cuts could turn out to be lower than 30 percent. On Thursday, AMD announced that its third quarter financial revenues will be 10 percent lower compared to revenues of a year ago. The company previously predicted that its revenues would be just one percent lower.

AMD said that the revisions were "due to weaker than expected demand across all product lines caused by the challenging macroeconomic environment." AMD will report its full financial results on October 18th.

AMD has always been the number two PC processor maker, behind Intel. However, the company has yet to make much a mark in the growing tablet market, unlike Intel, which will have several tablets with its chips inside running Windows 8 later this fall. AMD announced a new low power chip this week, the Z-60 APU, which it says will be put inside a number of upcoming Windows 8-based tablets. So far, there has been no specific announcements on which tablets and PCs will use the new AMD chip.